Long awaited Bay Bridge bike path opens all the way Sunday

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The sun rises illuminating the new portion of the Bay Bridge bike path leading to Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. The bike path on the new Bay Bridge has been completed and will open this weekend allowing bicyclists, walkers and runners an open path from the East Bay to Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)

OAKLAND — The pedestrian and bicycle path along the eastern span of the Bay Bridge is a road to nowhere no longer: Caltrans officials said Friday that the path, including its landing site on Yerba Buena Island, will open to the public at noon Sunday.

In a statement, Caltrans District Director Bijan Sartipi said the opening of the path marked an important milestone for making the Bay Bridge a true, multi-modal transbay corridor.

“This important milestone helps bring greater focus to the next phase of reaching San Francisco by cyclists and pedestrians,” he said.

But cyclists caution that even though the route is open to the island, it doesn’t mean the work there is complete. There is still no cycling or pedestrian infrastructure on the island to accommodate visitors once they land, forcing them to walk or ride down a treacherously steep and winding road, said Dave Campbell, a spokesman for the bicycle advocacy group, Bike East Bay. In the meantime a shuttle will ferry weekend cyclists to Treasure Island.

“It’s better,” Campbell said. “But, we want people to keep it in perspective that we’re not done yet.”

Caltrans spokesperson for the Bay Bridge Leah Robinson-Leach, right, talks to a reporter on the new portion of the Bay Bridge bike path leading to Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. The bike path on the new Bay Bridge has been completed and will open this weekend allowing bicyclists, walkers and runners an open path from the East Bay to Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)

For the past three years, since the eastern span of the Bay Bridge opened to vehicular traffic, the path has stopped just short of the island, offering cyclists and walkers a taste, however tantalizing or ultimately unsatisfying, of what could be possible once it was finished.

The path was initially supposed to open at the same time as the $6.7 billion bridge, but the old eastern span’s cantilever section blocked its path and had to be dismantled first. Caltrans pushed the opening date back to the summer of 2015, then later as problems of one sort or another arose.

Those problems contributed to $24 million in cost overruns for redesigns, adjustments and repairs. Of that, $13.5 million went for additional work on the railing that had previously been installed, according to Caltrans documents.

And $6.3 million went to construction and aesthetic changes during some of the final stages of construction. Caltrans changed the architecture plan from a truss to a cantilever support system and addressed issues with the fabrication and installation of the railing. Disputes with the railing manufacturer further delaying the path’s opening.

Then Caltrans had to coordinate with the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) and the Treasure Island Development Authority (TIDA), which designed and constructed new on- and off-ramps for Interstate 80, and delayed the path’s opening another couple of months. Some of that road work will continue long after the path to the island opens to the public, but the new westbound on- and off-ramps will open to motorists this Saturday, SFCTA officials said.

Eric Young, a spokesman for the SFCTA, said the agency is working on a $2 million vista point for bicycle and pedestrian visitors once they arrive at Yerba Buena Island. It will have bathrooms, benches, bike racks and a hydration station. That work is expected to be completed sometime in November, he said.

As part of a massive redevelopment of Treasure and Yerba Buena islands, the developer is expected to paint bicycle lanes on roads leading to Treasure Island and will eventually install a separate bike path and sidewalk, said TIDA Director Bob Beck. But the developers are only just beginning that work, he said.

It couldn’t be completed sooner, Beck said, because even though planning for the redevelopment began in 1994, the land was only transferred to the city from the Navy last year.

Caltrans spokesperson for the Bay Bridge Leah Robinson-Leach talks to a reporter on the new portion of the Bay Bridge bike path leading to Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. The bike path on the new Bay Bridge has been completed and will open this weekend allowing bicyclists, walkers and runners an open path from the East Bay to Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)

Now that the route to the island is finally open, Campbell said he is cautiously optimistic about its success. He does have concerns about what cyclists will encounter once they get there.

“The conditions are not ideal,” he said. “You can legally bike there and you can legally walk there; it’s just not advisable except for the really experienced cyclist.”

TIDA, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), SFCTA and Caltrans, will run the shuttle to transport visitors from the path’s landing on Yerba Buena Island to Treasure Island, Beck said. It will run every half-hour on weekends and holidays during the hours that the bike path is open. The path is closed on most weekdays while Caltrans completes the final stages of deconstructing the old eastern span.

The ultimate goal, Campbell said, is to extend bicycle and pedestrian access from Treasure Island all the way to San Francisco. Initial estimates put the costs for the project between $300 million and $500 million and could take 10 years to complete, according to the MTC. The agency has asked engineers to present a less costly plan to the public sometime earlier next year, said MTC spokesman Randy Rentschler.

Either way, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition spokesman Chris Cassidy said extending the bike path to the island is “a huge step in the right direction.”

“It’s going to be really fantastic once that’s built out,” he said. “This is a huge accomplishment.”

Erin Baldassari covers transportation, the Bay Area's housing shortage and breaking news. She served on the East Bay Times' 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning team for its coverage of the Ghost Ship fire. But most of all, she cares deeply about local news and hopes you do, too. If you'd like to support local journalism, please subscribe today.

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